Passion takes off for sea journey

Crew of local yacht to race from California to Hawaii

The crew of the Passion, belonging to Steve T. Hastings, the 2006 commodore of the Corpus Christi Yacht Club, maneuvers the 50-foot Santa Cruz sailboat earlier this year in Corpus Christi Bay.

Steve T. Hastings checks Pacific Ocean wind currents Wednesday in preparation for the Transpacific Yacht Race in which he and his crew will compete.

0628_LOC_yacht race1--Attorney Steve T. Hastings fiddles with the settings on his new satallite telephone Wednesday to be able to make calls from the middle of the Pacific Ocean during the 12-day Transpacific Yacht Race from California to Hawaii.

After having a racing hull put on in Houston, Passion, the 50-foot Santa Cruz sailboat, belonging to local attorney Steve T. Hastings, was loaded Monday onto an 18-wheeler for transport California to compete in the Transpacific Yacht Race for the first time. The boat, made in 1981 has won races in Cuba, and the Virgin Islands, and is one of 76 boats from four foreign countries and nine states registered to compete in the more than 2,200-mile race.

Contributed

Sailing is his passion, so that's what Steve T. Hastings' wife dubbed his sloop.

For more than a year, the 51-year-old Corpus Christi trial attorney has been preparing Passion, his 1981 50-foot Santa Cruz sailboat, and his crew to compete against 76 sailboats bound for Honolulu in the Transpacific Yacht Race.

"It's one of few classic ocean races this boat was designed for," said Hastings, a native of Waco. "We're going hard."

Passion's crew will engage six sailing yachts from four foreign countries -- three from Japan -- and the others representing nine states, including six racing home to Hawaii. The 10- to 11-day, more than 2,200-mile, staggered-start competition begins July 9 in Los Angeles under the signal of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hastings' is the only single-hull sailboat from Texas that is competing. His sailboat will leave July 12.

The 2006 commodore of the Corpus Christi Yacht Club won't talk about the cost of having a new racing hull added, keel bolts checked, hydraulics rebuilt, a new refrigeration system and sideband radio installed or the transportation cost for the boat and 10 crew members to Los Angeles.

"I didn't set a budget and don't really want to add it all up," Hastings said. "But it's expensive."

Joining him and two of his children, Holly, 20, and Carter, 16, in the crew are Mark Foster, past U.S. Olympic sailing team world champion; and longtime crewman Bill Liles and his son Will, a member of the University of Texas sailing team.

"Even though they are very experienced, I'm a little nervous," said Tammy Hastings, 50. "There's some separation anxiety and nervousness about this unimaginable voyage he's taking our children on."

She and the couple's youngest son, Cody, 10, will meet the sailors in Los Angeles for the start, then fly to Hawaii for their arrival, she said.

"Cody is too young to be on the boat in the type of seas they will encounter," Tammy Hastings said. "The Pacific is too cold, and waves will be huge. We'll enjoy this adventure vicariously through them."

The crew will alternate sleeping five in the cabin and five on deck, and Cody didn't want to be cramped on a boat for days anyway, he said.

"I don't want them to get eaten by sharks," he said. "But it's OK I'm not going this time. Dad's a pretty crazy driver."

Holly Hastings sailed with her father and crew from Jamaica to the Cayman Islands eight years ago. "We'll rotate jobs," the Baylor University student said. "Everyone has a different personal strength based on body build. I'm lighter and would like to do some climbing, but don't think Dad wants me to. I'll do anything needed."

They aren't racing for prize money.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime deal," Hastings said. "And we do plan to come back with a trophy."

If so, it won't be the first, Hastings said, twisting the Rolex wristwatch on his arm. His crew helped win the International Rolex Cup Regatta in 1998 for a race in the Virgin Islands. And in 1999, they won the Havana Cup for first place, racing 360 miles from St. Petersburg, Fla., to Cuba. The Transpacific Yacht Race is the longest they've entered and one of the oldest.

In 1906, the competition began with three boats. If all of the 76 yachts registered this year make it to the starting line off Point Fermin in San Pedro, Calif., July 9, 12 and 15 it will be the second largest fleet in 101 years, said Rich Roberts, race spokesman. The record is 80 in 1979.

"I'm going to be brave for them," said Tammy Hastings, who is relieved her husband is providing emergency position-indicating radio beacon devices for each of the crew in case they are tossed overboard. "I don't have the adventurous nature to try something like this -- I get motion sick in a bathtub."